Court documents: Matt Gaetz was at a sex and drug party with high school students

According to legal documents filed Thursday, Representative Matt Gaetz was with a 17-year-old girl at a party in 2017 that was at the center of an alleged sex trafficking scandal.

The filing cites affidavits based on three witness statements, which remain sealed, that Notus said show the Florida congressman was at the party. One witness cited in the filing says the girl, a high school student, was naked and said people were there to “engage in sexual activity” while drugs such as cocaine and ecstasy were involved.

The documents were filed by lawyers trying to recover legal fees in a lawsuit brought by Chris Dorworth, a lobbyist friend of Gaetz who hosted the alleged party at his Florida home.

According to Notus, the young girl is identified in the documents only as AB. “The findings to date in this case indicate that on Saturday, July 15, 2017, Dorworth hosted a party at his residence… with the following guests,” one of the documents states, before listing several people, including “AB” and “Matt Gaetz.”

According to Notus, the new documents mark the first time “that affidavit has been referenced in public court records alleging that the congressman attended one of the long-rumored parties linked to an alleged sex scandal involving minors.”

In 2021, the Daily Beast reported on a confession letter from Gaetz's aide Joel Greenberg. In the note, Greenberg claimed that Gaetz paid him to arrange sex with several women and a then-17-year-old girl.

The Beast also released private Venmo logs showing that Gaetz did indeed send money to Greenberg and that he even used a nickname for the teenager when she turned 18.

Greenberg is currently serving an 11-year prison sentence after being convicted of several charges, including sex trafficking of a child.

Gaetz had previously denied involvement in sex trafficking or having sex with minors, and a U.S. Department of Justice investigation ended without charges being brought against the congressman.